Name: Low Carb Jambalaya
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 large onion, diced; 2 andouille sausage, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch half-moons; 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped; 1 (14 ounce) can crushed tomatoes; 3 green bell peppers, seeded and diced; 2 zucchinis, diced; 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning; 1 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste; 1 cup chicken broth; 1 pound chicken breast, cooked, cooled, and chopped; 1 pound cooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, butter, onion, garlic, tomato, pepper, sauce):

Thymebetter flavor fit
Capersbetter flavor fit
Parsleybetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, butter, onion, garlic, tomato, pepper, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

Low Carb Jambalaya